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Viewers' Discussion Guide To VIEWERS’ DISCUSSION GUIDE TO ᎠᎬᏱ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ F I R S T L A N G U A G E the race to save Cherokee by Alison Smith with Jeffrey Reaser and Danica Cullinan North Carolina State University INTRODUCTION This discussion guide is the companion to First Language - The Race to Save Cherokee, an Emmy award-winning film by the Language & Life Project at NC State University. The film brings attention to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians as they fight to revitalize their language. The Cherokee Indians have been living in the southern Appalachian Mountains since at least 1000 CE. Later named one of the “Five Civilized Tribes,” they, along with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, maintained complex agrarian civilizations in what is now the Southeastern United States even as colonial settlers encroached on their ancestral homes. Despite boasting a literacy rate well above that of the European Americans throughout the 19th century and producing the Cherokee Phoenix, one of the earliest newspapers in North Carolina, the Cherokee language became critically endangered in the 20th century mostly as a result of government policies. Among the most destructive policies was the creation of Indian Boarding Schools, which separated children from their culture and punished them for speaking their heritage language. This movement was spurred by Captain Richard H. Pratt, who described the aim of the so-called civilization program by noting his belief that “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one…In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” These and related linguistic imperialist policies resulted in a sharp decline in Cherokee language throughout the 20th century. The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians have recognized the cultural loss should the language fade entirely, and are now taking extraordinary steps to keep their language alive. This guide explains key concepts and terminology used throughout the film and also contains additional resources that can be used to further explore various topics discussed in the film. The guide also features discussion questions to be answered before, during, and after watching the documentary. KEY CONCEPTS 2 & TERMINOLOGY Language Revitalization Language revitalization refers to efforts made to increase the use of a language that is in danger of becoming endangered or extinct. Language revitalization can have different goals and various tactics to reach those goals, but these efforts aim to improve both fluency of speakers and increase the number of speakers of a language. One critical component of such efforts is to expand the domains in which the language is used by community members. Heritage Language A heritage language refers to a language of ethnic/linguistic minorities maintained in an environment in which there is a different primary/dominant language. By contrast, the dominant language is the language spoken by the dominant social, economic, and cultural power of the area in question and is the language used for governmental, educational, and other official communication. (For the purposes of this documentary, the heritage language is Cherokee and the dominant language is English.) Linguistic Imperialism The term linguistic imperialism is not specifically mentioned in the film, but it plays an important role in why the Cherokee language is in danger of extinction. In a broad sense, it is the forced imposition of one language onto a group of speakers of a different language. This imposition is often related to social, economic, and cultural power. (in this case, English was forced upon the Cherokee, leading to a situation of language loss for the Cherokee Indians.) Beginning in 1870 (with the last residential schools closing as late as 1973), the United States federal government began sending American Indians to off-reservation boarding schools. Segments from First Language and Voices of North Carolina touch on this tragedy, and you can read (or listen to) more here: American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many Boarding Schools (Museum of the American Indian) Although the policy of removing children and re-educating them in boarding schools no longer exists, endangered languages such as Cherokee still struggle to survive in the midst of social, economic, and cultural pressures. Bilingualism François Grosjean, an international authority on the topic of bilingualism, gives this definition of bilingual individuals: “[b]ilinguals are those who use two or more languages (or dialects) in their everyday lives” (Grosjean 4). Note that this definition emphasizes a regular use of the languages over any designated levels of fluency for the languages in question. The Cherokee Tribes There are three federally-recognized Cherokee tribes in the United States: the Cherokee Nation (Oklahoma), the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (Oklahoma), and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina). The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, upon whom this film is based, resides in the Qualla Boundary in the far western part of North Carolina. The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians 3 separated from the other Cherokee groups over cultural differences in the early 1800s. They were able to avoid forced removal under the 1830 Indian Removal Act in part because William Holland Thomas, a white man who had been adopted and raised by the tribe, purchased land with tribal money (Indians were not permitted to own land). Trail of Tears: The Trail of Tears refers to a series of forced relocations of American Indians from their homelands to “Indian Territory” across the Mississippi River. These extended from the 1830 Indian Removal Act and lasted throughout most of the 1830s. To read more about the Trail of Tears, see these pages on the History Channel’s website: Trail of Tears 7 things you may not know about the Trail of Tears The Cherokee Syllabary: A syllabary differs from an alphabet in that each character in a syllabary represents a syllable, whereas each character in an alphabet represents an individual sound. The Cherokee syllabary was created by Sequoyah in the early 1800s. Whereas English has 26 letters, the Cherokee Syllabary originally had 85 characters to capture the different sound combinations of the language. To learn more, watch this video featuring Lawrence Panther, a Cherokee translator and language instructor. “Within the language are values and traditions and history and ways of life. That’s what speaking Cherokee is about, and, so, without that, we lose all of that … we lose the heart and soul of who we are as Cherokee people.” -Renissa Walker Former Director of the New Kituwah Academy In the Cherokee tradition, by becoming fluent in the language, one inherits the shared cultural history of the tribe; thus, many feel that, to be fully Cherokee, one must also speak the language. “Our language is important. It makes it clear which group of Indians we are … what our name is … that we’re Cherokee.” -Marie Junalaska Cherokee language specialist The name Cherokee is of uncertain origin. One theory is that comes from Muscogee word “Cilokki” which means “the people with another langauge.”The Cherokee’s original name for themselves was “Aniyunwiya,” which translates profoundly as “the real people.” Regardless of the origin of the term, it is clear that the language is a critical part of the group’s cultural history. COMMON 4 MISCONCEPTION the truth is people may think Research has shown that bilingual children are not delayed in their speech and Raising a child in a language development. bilingual household will Furthermore, there is confuse the child and/or evidence that suggests delay the child’s speech and language acquisition. that being bilingual can actually enhance cognitive flexibility. FUN STUFF The New Kituwah Academy (ᎠᏤ ᎩᏚᏩ ᏧᎾᏕᎶᏆᏍᏗ) in Cherokee, NC, is a private, bilingual immersion school that serves Cherokee students from kindergarten through sixth grade. More about the school can be found on the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program website. The school also has a YouTube channel. Beloved Man or Beloved Woman is a title bestowed on a Cherokee person to honor their special contributions to their people- a unique and special designation afforded to few in recorded history. LLP documentaries First Language and Voices of North Carolina feature four of these individuals (clockwise from top left); Amanda Swimmer, Jerry Wolfe, Shirley Oswalt, and Myrtle Driver Johnson. You can read more about the tradition on this page of the Visit Cherokee website. 5 Interested in learning more about the Cherokee language and Cherokee culture? Check out the following links! • Cherokee language learning material found on the New Kituwah Academy website here. • Cherokee language database here. • This website, courtesy of the Cherokee Nation. • The VisitCherokeeNC YouTube channel and the OsiyoTV YouTube channel. • Our State Magazine, in conjunction with UNC-TV, also has a short video on the Cherokee language. • Voice of America (VOA) News has posted several YouTube videos featuring the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and their fight to revitalize their language. Watch them here and here. • To learn more about visiting Cherokee, NC, click here! And if you’re learning the language, you may want to download a Cherokee keyboard to your computer and/or smart device. You can find instructions on this page of Cherokee.org DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 6 PRE-VIEWING 1. Imagine that, one day, as a student in the United States, you show up for a normal school day and find out that you are no longer allowed to speak English at school. Your classes are no longer being taught in English; your textbooks are no longer written in English; announcements are no longer made in English; you are even punished for speaking English in the hallways and at lunch time! How do you think that you would react? 2.
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